Yep, he's a goofball. I have CNBC on all day, every day if for nothing more than the tickers and bug crawls. After 25+ years in the business it's easy to tune most of it out... except Cramer. He has been around for decades in the managed money arena and has been a loudmouth screamer the whole time. I will hand it to him, it certainly got him noticed and propeled his career to a much higher level! I believe his first regular gig on CNBC was with Larry Kudlow in Kudlow & Cramer. Whatever you think of his TV tactics, he proved his stock analyst and picking prowess long, long ago. He doesn't do the show for the $$, I assure you.
The only caution I have with his recommendations is to keep your outlook and potential holding period longer term. Waaaay too many people tune in, hear a new recommendation, then run to place an after hours buy order. You will often see a price jump the morning after he speaks of a stock. But his picks are typically longer term in nature and almost always pull back to an even better entry price. Even Cramer himself stresses repeatedly he is not shooting for the optimum entry at the currrent market price, and not to fall into the trap of gunning his picks for short-term trading flips.
Always remember, for every buyer there's a seller. Why are THEY selling? Cramer is a stock analyst who, by his own admission, only addresses the 'what to buy' question. But 80% of the price movement (and therefore, risk) in stocks has nothing to do with corporate fundamentals. Anybody that purchased a 5-star stock only to watch it get hammered knows that. If you agree with the premise of Economics 101, do yourself a big favor and educate yourself on Point and Figure Methodology. Bullish Percent indicators are leading indicators and help answer the 'when to buy' and 'when to sell' question. Otherwise, you are controling only 20% of the risk in owning that stock. Why not use all the tools in the toolbox? Happy investing!
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2004 | 6MTs | Diamond Graphite/Graphite
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